St David's Hall, Cardiff
Harmonielehre, John Adams's huge three-movement orchestral score first heard in 1985, takes its title from Arnold Schoenberg's important treatise on harmony, and this BBC National Orchestra of Wales performance was a reminder of the significance of the connection.
Adams was taught by Leon Kirchner, a pupil of Schoenberg, but the homage is more than nominal: Adams makes specific reference to the score of Gurrelieder, the harmonic language of which reflects the last throes of Romanticism. Yet in opting for the sounds of the late 19th century ? albeit in tandem with the technique of 20th-century minimalism ? Adams was also repudiating the atonality Schoenberg went on to establish, which conditioned the rest of the century. The sense of a love-hate relationship is implicit. A member of the audience put his ambiguity differently: "It was very exciting, but it gave me a headache."
Conductor Thierry Fischer's metronomic manner dealt with the minimalist style with efficiency, eliciting strong, edgy playing from his percussion. He seemed less concerned with the expressive and structural significance of the harmonic writing, surely axiomatic in this context. Some of the subtlety of Adams's layering of orchestral texture was also missing. Though the final emphatic climax was achieved with suitable flourish, this was not a particularly illuminating interpretation.
The symphonic scale of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto in B flat major had provided a strong first-half counterweight, as well as exemplifying the sort of harmonies Schoenberg codified in his treatise, then turned his back on. Soloist Lars Vogt weighted them with great sensitivity, bringing a silky tone to the lyricism of the Adagio and a gracefully dancing quality to the finale.
chelsea clinton and marc mezvinsky carrie underwood and mike fisher katy perry and russell brand alicia keys and swizz beatz carmelo anthony and lala vasquez
No comments:
Post a Comment